Amaurys Mendez Campanon Sentenced to Serve 57 Months In Federal Prison for Wire Fraud and Aggravated Identity Theft

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – On August 29, 2018, Amaurys Mendez Campanon, 40, of Miami, Florida, was sentenced by the Honorable J. Ronnie Greer, U.S. District Judge, to serve a total of 57 months in federal prison for his role in a wire fraud and aggravated identity theft conspiracy involving credit card skimmers.  Upon his release from prison, he will be supervised by U.S. Probation for three years.  Campanon was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $21,114.84.

In April 2018, Campanon pleaded guilty to three counts of a September 2017 federal indictment.  Details of the scheme are outlined in his plea agreement on file with U.S. District Court.  According to the plea agreement, between August 7, 2017 and August 10, 2017, Campanon and Odemnis Prats Leiva purchased credit and debit card account information pertaining to numerous persons without their knowledge. They used the fraudulently obtained information to re-encode unloaded gift cards, which they shoplifted from various retail establishments.  The re-encoded cards – which were, in effect, converted credit cards bearing the account information of the victims - were then used to purchase loaded gift cards and other consumer items at various retail establishments across east Tennessee and elsewhere.

As a result of an ongoing investigation by law enforcement, Campanon and Leiva were arrested in Rogersville, Tennessee, on August 10, 2017.  At the time of their arrest, Leiva was in possession of nine unlawfully re-encoded devices, $7,020.25 in cash, numerous gift cards, all of which he had obtained as part of the conspiracy, as well as other items used in furtherance of their conspiracy.  Leiva also pleaded guilty to these charges and was sentenced in July 2018 to serve 54 months in prison.

This investigation was conducted by the U.S. Secret Service, Johnson City Police Department and Rogersville Police Department.  Assistant U.S. Attorney TJ Harker represented the United States in court proceedings.

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